SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Guatemala Leader Apologizes for 1954 CIA-Backed Coup
President "requests the forgiveness" of the family of Jacobo Arbenz, a leftist who was violently removed from power.
Oct 22, 2011
The Guatemalan president, Alvaro Colom, has issued an official apology to the family of the former president Jacobo Arbenz, 57 years after a US-backed coup violently removed him from power.
Colom, who apologized under a settlement worked out with Arbenz's family by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, said on Thursday the coup was a "crime [against] the Guatemalan society committed by the CIA and Guatemalans with bad intentions".
Speaking during a ceremony at the former government headquarters, in the presence of Jacobo Arbenz Vilanova, the only surviving son of the former president, Colom said: "As head of state, as constitutional president of the republic and as the military's commander in chief, I hereby wish to request the forgiveness of the Arbenz Vilanova family for this great crime.
"It was above all a crime against him, his wife, his family, but also a historic crime for Guatemala. This day changed Guatemala and we still haven't recovered."
Among the new measures announced by Colom's leftist government is the redrafting of school textbooks to add a retelling of Arbenz's legacy to the country and the renaming of a national highway in his honor.
'CIA-backed coup'
Arbenz was only the second freely elected president in Guatemala. Dubbed "the Soldier of the People", he had promised to redistribute land to impoverished indigenous communities much to the ire of massive US agricultural investors in the country.
He was overthrown on June 27, 1954, in a coup led by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas that was engineered by the US Central Intelligence Agency.
The coup helped trigger a 36-year civil war, according to Colom.
Indeed, the coup was followed by decades of political violence, military rule and a guerrilla movement formed by disaffected military officers that set off one of Latin America's bloodiest civil wars from 1960 to 1996.
Arbenz, a former left-wing leader, was exiled on charges of being a communist. But his son dismissed the accusations, saying they were based only on land reforms that threatened the interests of the United Fruit Company.
"Here started the injustice and I [call on] the United States to recognize their errors."
Castillo, the coup leader, was shot to death on 26 July 1957, while in power.
Arbenz died in exile in Mexico in 1971. His remains were not repatriated until 1995.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
The Guatemalan president, Alvaro Colom, has issued an official apology to the family of the former president Jacobo Arbenz, 57 years after a US-backed coup violently removed him from power.
Colom, who apologized under a settlement worked out with Arbenz's family by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, said on Thursday the coup was a "crime [against] the Guatemalan society committed by the CIA and Guatemalans with bad intentions".
Speaking during a ceremony at the former government headquarters, in the presence of Jacobo Arbenz Vilanova, the only surviving son of the former president, Colom said: "As head of state, as constitutional president of the republic and as the military's commander in chief, I hereby wish to request the forgiveness of the Arbenz Vilanova family for this great crime.
"It was above all a crime against him, his wife, his family, but also a historic crime for Guatemala. This day changed Guatemala and we still haven't recovered."
Among the new measures announced by Colom's leftist government is the redrafting of school textbooks to add a retelling of Arbenz's legacy to the country and the renaming of a national highway in his honor.
'CIA-backed coup'
Arbenz was only the second freely elected president in Guatemala. Dubbed "the Soldier of the People", he had promised to redistribute land to impoverished indigenous communities much to the ire of massive US agricultural investors in the country.
He was overthrown on June 27, 1954, in a coup led by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas that was engineered by the US Central Intelligence Agency.
The coup helped trigger a 36-year civil war, according to Colom.
Indeed, the coup was followed by decades of political violence, military rule and a guerrilla movement formed by disaffected military officers that set off one of Latin America's bloodiest civil wars from 1960 to 1996.
Arbenz, a former left-wing leader, was exiled on charges of being a communist. But his son dismissed the accusations, saying they were based only on land reforms that threatened the interests of the United Fruit Company.
"Here started the injustice and I [call on] the United States to recognize their errors."
Castillo, the coup leader, was shot to death on 26 July 1957, while in power.
Arbenz died in exile in Mexico in 1971. His remains were not repatriated until 1995.
The Guatemalan president, Alvaro Colom, has issued an official apology to the family of the former president Jacobo Arbenz, 57 years after a US-backed coup violently removed him from power.
Colom, who apologized under a settlement worked out with Arbenz's family by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, said on Thursday the coup was a "crime [against] the Guatemalan society committed by the CIA and Guatemalans with bad intentions".
Speaking during a ceremony at the former government headquarters, in the presence of Jacobo Arbenz Vilanova, the only surviving son of the former president, Colom said: "As head of state, as constitutional president of the republic and as the military's commander in chief, I hereby wish to request the forgiveness of the Arbenz Vilanova family for this great crime.
"It was above all a crime against him, his wife, his family, but also a historic crime for Guatemala. This day changed Guatemala and we still haven't recovered."
Among the new measures announced by Colom's leftist government is the redrafting of school textbooks to add a retelling of Arbenz's legacy to the country and the renaming of a national highway in his honor.
'CIA-backed coup'
Arbenz was only the second freely elected president in Guatemala. Dubbed "the Soldier of the People", he had promised to redistribute land to impoverished indigenous communities much to the ire of massive US agricultural investors in the country.
He was overthrown on June 27, 1954, in a coup led by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas that was engineered by the US Central Intelligence Agency.
The coup helped trigger a 36-year civil war, according to Colom.
Indeed, the coup was followed by decades of political violence, military rule and a guerrilla movement formed by disaffected military officers that set off one of Latin America's bloodiest civil wars from 1960 to 1996.
Arbenz, a former left-wing leader, was exiled on charges of being a communist. But his son dismissed the accusations, saying they were based only on land reforms that threatened the interests of the United Fruit Company.
"Here started the injustice and I [call on] the United States to recognize their errors."
Castillo, the coup leader, was shot to death on 26 July 1957, while in power.
Arbenz died in exile in Mexico in 1971. His remains were not repatriated until 1995.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.